Garage Project on Track

July 8, 2013

McMechen Mayor Mike Gracik said the city has a contractor ready to begin work on a new city garage along W.Va. 2 within the next two weeks.

On Friday, Gracik said the city reached an agreement with Richards Contracting of Moundsville and hired the firm at a cost of $154,000.

The new city garage will be a "maintenance-free" metal structure, Gracik said, built on the same spot where the old city garage stood. Following safety and health codes, the building will have a paved and finished floor in the restroom and lunch areas. It also will re-use some of the floor left behind from the old building.

Article Photos

Photo by Daniel DorschCity vehicles and equipment rest on the concrete foundation of the old McMechen city garage along W.Va. 2. A new city garage is scheduled to be built on the same spot by Richards Contracting of Moundsville.

McMechen's quest for a new garage began about a year ago, when the old city garage building was torn down due to its dilapidated condition. The state Senate offered the city a $50,000 grant to use toward a new municipal garage, matched by another $50,000 grant from the governor's office. Another $5,000 was pledged by the House of Delegates, according to Gracik, who credited Delegate Mike Ferro and state Senate President Jeff Kessler, both D-Marshall, with obtaining the funds.

Earlier in the year, Gracik said the city chose to hire Doors Unlimited of Bridgeport to build the new city garage out of concrete block for about $164,000.

Work was supposed to begin when the weather broke in the spring, but Gracik said the city could not reach an agreement with the company and had to seek out a new contractor.

Meanwhile, another summer project for the city is under way with workers repaving every alley in the downtown area.

"All the alleys in town will be re-done," Gracik said Friday. "There have been five alleys paved so far."

McMechen City Clerk Suzanne Debolt said funds for the repaving were allocated in the city budget. She added the crews are completely redoing the alleys, tearing them up all the way to their base and then rebuilding them.